People think that to enjoy vegan food you need to be 100% vegan. It’s all or nothing. For many, that means not even considering dairy alternatives. While almost everybody wants to improve their health, converting that thought into exercising more, eating healthier or doing more for the planet is often harder than it first seems. More often than not, we revert back to old habits - because we think it’s only the big changes that matter.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Silk wanted to empower those who might not want to take the full vegan plunge, but who acknowledge the benefits a more plant-forward diet could do for their health.

There’s a misconception on social media that vegan food tastes bad. People post pictures of vegan food fails and its reputation is only slowly changing.

Promoting a plant-based lifestyle involves encouraging consumers to start with a small conscious change, not having to go all-in and cut meat or dairy out of their diet completely. Plant-based used to be very niche. But when influencers like Tom Brady, Beyonce and Snoop Dogg embrace the flexitarian diet and talk about it publicly, it has the potential to go mainstream.

But the term ‘flexitarian’ still has a stigma that eating vegan is hard and requires strict adherence to its rules, which is why a campaign to reduce aversion to plant-based food could show people that it is okay to go at their own pace in the plant-based world.

With consumers adopting more health-conscious behaviours during COVID, plant-based beverages in particular saw accelerated demand. There is an opportunity to show that plant-based food and beverages can not only be a nutritious choice, they can also be easy and delicious.

Silk was founded on the principle of healthy innovation, so they felt they had the authority to be the leader in this conversation.

With all the new plant-based choices available, it can be overwhelming for Canadians to decide how they might want to adapt their diets. Knowing that little changes can be made with just a few plant-based options swapped into a diet unlocked a thought for them: they could highlight plant-based oat/almond/cashew beverages and yogurts, and say it’s ok to have them sometimes.

Most brands avoid talking about intermittent usage. They want a lot of commitment from consumers. But Silk wanted to embrace the philosophy of intermittent, because they knew it better reflected consumer’s lived experiences of dietary nuance better than a totalitarian mantra.

The strategy was to create a brand new dietary group: The Intermittent Vegans. Because people embrace plant-based food in different ways, they would show that cutting out meat and dairy is easier than people tend to think. And more importantly, they would show consumers that Silk plant-based wouldn’t compromise on taste or texture.

And the best way to inspire people? Show them that they can do it too.

They worked with 3 professional chefs and paired them with Silk brand ambassadors. Together they would “veganize” one of their popular dishes using Silk and other Danone products to show that it is simple to still enjoy a plant-based version of the meals they love.

From this, they created long-form content videos for YouTube and social media that featured Chef Adrian Forte from Toronto created a Seitan Souvlaki with a Silk Cashew Crème Tzatziki. co-owners of the Charcut Roast House in Calgary, Chefs Connie DeSousa and John Jackson, made a plant based shwarma burger with Silk “Secret Sauce” and Chef Chuck Hughes from Quebec prepared a Peach Pancake with Oat Milk Ice Cream. It truly developed into a chef versus chef contest, as one of the chefs threw out a challenge to Matty “Meat” Matheson, who accepted the throwdown and created a menu item using Silk products too.

The content series then announced a contest to drive further engagement, which invited consumers to submit their own recipe they’d like to “veganize” for a chance to win $3,000 worth of prizes via the Silk Instagram page. All recipes were then posted to Silk’s website to help inspire all those future flexitarians to find out more about Intermittent Veganing.

Canadians spent 4 million minutes with their content, a total of 669,975 videos were completed, which is stunning for an average video length of 6+ minutes,brand meaningfulness increased by +28%, brand saliency increased by +16%, product sales increased +10% versus same period last year, product velocity increased +18% versus same period last year and 1.1 million earned media impressions were created as the challenge was shared across social media.